1499 Manuel indio found in Da Gama shipwreck - Oman

yosclimber

The two silver coins that could be identified by visual examination were the Manuel índio minted in 1499, and the real grosso minted in the reign (1438–1481) of Dom Afonso V sometime between 1475 and 1479 (Gomes and Trigueiros, 1992: 9, 63; Gomes, 2013: 143, 161). The índio is an especially important and exciting discovery as it is a legendary coin ordered by Dom Manuel to be struck after the return of da Gama's first voyage to India.

There is only one other known example of an índio coin in the world, which is held within the numismatic collection of the National Historical Museum (MHN) of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro (Trigueiros, 1996: 46; Museu Histórico Nacional, 2000). Despite the existence of the MHN specimen, the índio, because of its extreme rarity, has assumed legendary status within the numismatic community of Portugal as the ‘lost’ or ‘ghost’ coin of Dom Manuel I (Trigueiros A. pers. comm., unpublished report 25.6.2014). To ensure correct identification of the índio recovered from the site, the block within which it was contained was CT scanned at WMG, University of Warwick, using the 225kV head of the Nikon CT scanner, which provides 16-micron resolution

(Image in linked article below, from "International Journal of Nautical Archaeology")
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...1/1095-9270.12175/full

JCMhouston

I read one fo the articles on it yesterday, very cool find.